Lamentations of Eden

Searing darkness paints the sky,

an ugly, lifeless, scorching lie.

A single stone before an inexorable tide -

I'll drown before I reach the other side...

A day can start so stunningly serene;

unblemished coat of deciduous green,

imbued with patches of floral delight,

as if given life for just that sight.

But before the sun can gently retire,

malice takes me like an infernal fire

gorged on the kindling of my shriveled heart,

roiling in my veins til it's reluctant depart.

A memory seared in stalwart stone

is no more vulnerable to time than bone

frozen deep within a vault of ice;

lasting record of my exile from paradise.

It's never possible to again unknow

the truths I never wanted bestowed.

My prideful mind was willing, I'll admit,

but that's before I knew about the pit.

Falling forever into a fate I only wish

could be defined in so tame a term as hellish.

It goes beyond my feeble words to describe

the horrors to which I'm now subscribed.

Dare one suggest to me the slightest ignorance

disgust infests me like a pestilence.

Yet forbid your eyes ever cross my path

for I'll be left quaking in the aftermath.

To trust is such a concept absurd,

I find I've hardly invoked the word

in all my time spent on thoughts arcane...

I'm fairly certain it's beyond my brain.

Now, what's left behind is fairly dreary.

I doubt it's even worth your query -

Ha! For a fleeting moment, I actually believed

that someone was listening while I grieved.

But a screen is hardly a caring companion,

the wind isn't oft to have an opinion.

These walls may hear, but never listen;

it's I alone that beholds my confession.

Author's Note

“The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein